📚 The State of English Comprehension in Southeast Asia (2024–2025)

As Southeast Asia continues to grow as a region of innovation, migration, and global trade, one skill remains absolutely critical: English reading comprehension. But how well are Southeast Asian students actually performing when it comes to understanding English texts?

This blog post presents a fact-based breakdown of the current state of English literacy and comprehension across Southeast Asian countries—backed by reliable data, education surveys, and published research.

🌍 How Does Southeast Asia Rank in English Proficiency?

According to the EF English Proficiency Index (EPI) 2024, countries in Southeast Asia show large disparities in English proficiency levels.

• 🇸🇬 Singapore ranks #1 in Asia, classified under “very high proficiency.”
  → Source: EF EPI 2024
• 🇵🇭 Philippines ranks 20th globally and 2nd in Asia, under “high proficiency.”
  → Source: SBS Filipino
• 🇲🇾 🇻🇳 🇮🇩 Malaysia, Vietnam, and Indonesia are listed under “moderate proficiency.”
  → Source: EF EPI

📖 Reading Comprehension Among Students: The Numbers

Literacy is more than just being able to read words—it’s about understanding meaning. And that’s where many students fall behind.

SEA-PLM 2019 Findings:

• Across Southeast Asia, a large proportion of Grade 5 students struggled to read fluently or interpret simple texts.
  → Full report: SEA-PLM 2019 Low Performing Readers (PDF)

PISA 2018 Results:

• In the PISA 2018 reading test, the Philippines ranked last out of 79 countries.
  → PISA via ICCE2021

2024 Multilevel Study Highlights:

• Reading performance in Southeast Asia is significantly affected by:

  • Socioeconomic background

  • Gender (girls outperform boys)

  • School quality and teacher support

  • Exposure to bullying and poor well-being

  → Source: SpringerOpen (2024 Study)

📚 What Do Education Policies Say?

Singapore:

• English is the primary medium of instruction in schools.

• Strong government support via the Speak Good English Movement and bilingual frameworks.
  → Language Education in Singapore (Wikipedia)

Malaysia:

• Since 1967, English has not been the main language of instruction in most schools.

• This has had long-term impacts on English literacy and employment skills.

• Recent reforms in Sabah and Sarawak push for more English-medium education.
  → English-Medium Education

Indonesia:

• Literacy policies are decentralized, leading to inconsistent outcomes.

• Teachers often lack sufficient training in English instruction.
  → ERIC Literacy Policy Comparison Study (2023)

🧠 ELT Research & Innovations

A 2022 bibliometric analysis found that the most English Language Teaching (ELT) research in Southeast Asia comes from:

• Singapore

• Vietnam

• Malaysia

→ ResearchGate Study (2022)

Translanguaging Pedagogy:

A 2025 study highlights how translanguaging—using both native and English languages in learning—can boost comprehension and help bridge literacy gaps.
→ SAGE Journals

📝 Summary of Key Findings